Facebook exec reportedly tells publishers of which could let them die

Facebook CEO along with founder Mark Zuckerberg testifies during a US House Committee on Energy along with Commerce hearing about Facebook on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, April 11, 2018.

A Facebook executive told a group of publishers of which Mark Zuckerberg “doesn’t care” about news publishers along with of which the company could let them die if they didn’t cooperate with the company.

Facebook news executive Campbell Brown reportedly warned publishers recently if they didn’t work with the social media giant, “I’ll be holding your hands with your dying business like in a hospice,” according to several news sites citing the original report inside Australian. A Facebook spokesperson told CNBC in a statement those comments were “taken out of context.”

“These quotes are simply not accurate along with don’t reflect the discussion we had inside meeting,” Brown said in a statement to CNBC. “We know there’s much more to do, nevertheless our goal at Facebook — what the team works on every day with publishers along with reporters around the earth — is usually to help journalism succeed along with thrive, both on our platform along with off. of which means a brand new focus on building sustainable business types, along with of which’s what the discussion was about.”

The Australian’s story is usually behind a paywall, nevertheless several outlets picked up Brown’s quotes along with noted The Australian cites 5 sources corroborating the comments.

The Australian also published an illustration of which quoted Brown as saying, “We are not interested in talking to you about your traffic along with referrals any more. of which is usually the old world along with there is usually no going back,” according to Nieman Lab.

Brown, a former NBC News correspondent along with CNN prime-time host, made similar statements in February, saying the “nature of what Facebook is usually” means news traffic will inherently fluctuate. The company changed its algorithms late last year along with early of which year of which caused several publishers to see a significant dip in referral traffic through Facebook.

Facebook has introduced several initiatives along with tools for news publishers in recent months, helping build subscriber base along with prioritizing credible news sites in users’ feeds in order to dampen the spread of misinformation along with clickbait.

The social media site has previously had to answer for commandeering site traffic on news articles originally hosted on publishers’ sites.